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Research In Motion, makers of BlackBerry devices, joined the growing number of handheld and handset manufacturers offering their reference designs to third-party hardware and software developers in an attempt to gain market share.

Microsoft, PalmSource (the OS division of Palm), Symbian, and Nokia are among the other major manufacturers that have made similar announcements.

In addition to making the "hardware and software" blueprint available, RIM will offer consulting services, interoperability testing, and a certification program.

Closer Relationships

By also announcing a closer relationship with its chip supplier Analog Devices, RIM will get entry to ADI's customer base, which includes more than 25 handset OEMs.

"ADI has the lion's share of independent handset manufacturers after the majors," says Jim Balsillie, chair and co-CEO at RIM.

The ADI processor is a single chip design that includes both the digital signal processor for communications and the application processor, as well as the Sun Java Virtual Machine. ADI optimized the chip for GSM/GPRS wireless networks, according to Balsillie.

The latest RIM models already support Sun's Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME), the version of Java for use in handhelds, phones, and even smart cards. But some developers say the RIM environment is still too restrictive.

"RIM is a great device for doing e-mail, but J2ME is fairly limited for handhelds. It's good for the handset market," says Anthony Meadow, president of Bear River Associates.

Java for Handsets?

But on the handset, J2ME appears to be the platform of choice among most of the major manufacturers, as well as the carriers--with Nokia, Motorola, AT&T Wireless, and Nextel all announcing support for J2ME as the standard for application development.

With a huge diversity of choice as the handset manufacturers try to please millions of consumers, Balsillie says, Java is the perfect platform.

"Java virtualizes the processor, so that developers are writing to a virtual processor that allows them to abstract all operating systems and the hardware that is particular underneath. A virtual machine means, 'I don't care what the OS is or what the hardware is, just give me a common virtual machine,'" Balsillie says.

Although Palm offers its OS to handheld and handset manufacturers, the difference, according to Balsillie, is that the Palm OS is a particular implementation and does not allow for the same level of product diversification.

"Sun's Java is a specification, not an implementation. Every hardware is different. Sun is a spec and a policeman to make sure you adhere to that spec," Balsillie says.

Everything Always On

Nevertheless, RIM is increasingly faced with the fact that as packet-based wireless networks become ubiquitous, the always-on capabilities of the RIM device, which first attracted many corporate users, is no longer a differentiator.

In particular, the Palm I705, the Handspring Treo, and many smartphones with the same e-mail capabilities are now in the market.

Pricing and availability were not announced.

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